GROUP WORK
Theoretical introduction
In modern pedagogy group work is one of the most valued methods. The group work method is very useful, as it provides an opportunity to move from team administration to humanitarian teaching methods.
Students usually appreciate teaching that is stimulating, helps them get involved in the activities faster and perform better. Group work also develops student’s communication skills, helps them plan their work, avoid conflicts, perform certain functions, and objectively evaluate work results. The student is a full-fledged actor in the teaching process, not just a quiet observer. The teacher can spot each student and help him or her individually. The members of the group encourage, help, and stimulate each other. Working in groups affects the spiritual development of a student’s personality and enables more efficient and faster acquisition of knowledge.
Working in groups improves the relationship between students, creates an atmosphere of trust and support, and the perception of the importance of personal contribution strengthens self-esteem and involvement. Students can develop creativity, subject-specific, communication, and social skills.
When organizing group work, it is important to prepare the tasks in such a way that students are encouraged to work together, coordinate their efforts, anticipate personal contribution and roles in working together. Assessment should also be more focused on the outcome of the group rather than the individual student. Students will be more successful in learning effective collaboration if they are given the opportunity to reflect on the process in a group. Research shows that better academic and social outcomes are achieved when students learn in mixed groups based on ability and gender. Group heterogeneity is even considered a prerequisite for cooperation.
The collaborative learning process is closer to reality than traditional learning: most often we make decisions in the process of communication in small groups or temporary creative teams. These decisions are made both on the basis of a compromise and on the basis of the choice of the most valuable opinion put forward by someone from the group.
The challenges of the pandemic have limited the opportunities for group work during the educational process, so teachers need to be motivated to look for ways to do this during on-line learning.
Exercise I: DIALOGUE SEMINAR
Zoom rooms, Teams rooms, etc.
During the semester
This exercise is performed when a complex problem needs to be solved in the study process. It takes between four and six academic hours. Time depends on the number of groups. The more groups, the more time is needed, because each group must present the results of its work to everyone.
Online, blended
Synchronous
The goal of this challenging exercise is to learn how to work in a team when non-standard problem-solving techniques are needed.
Dialogue seminar is an innovative method of creating the new ideas using language and communication tools. This exercise teaches students to identify, formulate and understand the problems that arise in the humanities, and find the best scientific solutions.
STEP I
The teacher presents the method of dialogue seminar: together with the students, problems that need to be solved are formulated by working in groups, for example: people expect an aesthetic sense of art, but contemporary art often uses an aesthetic of ugliness.
STEP II
Students are divided into groups and the teacher sends them to individual rooms on a Zoom or Teams platform.
STEP III
The groups select their leaders. Once again, the groups discuss and clearly formulate the problem which needs to be solved, for example, how to learn to accept the aesthetics of ugliness in contemporary art and be able to evaluate it professionally. The group leader must lead the discussion, as it cannot allow deviate from the main goal: to clarify the problem, to formulate it properly. The group leader needs to continue to the entire process: keeping track of the time it takes to write (1), to discuss (2) and to rewrite (3). He or she writes down the final decision made during the discussions.
STEP IV
Each student writes his/her own text about a problem that was discussed in the early stages of the exercise, for example, how to evaluate the aesthetics of ugliness in shaping the value perception of art. The text is written in a completely free form. The group leader oversees the compliance of the essays and watches the time. The teacher visits the rooms to answer questions the students may have, such as how many words to write or may the text be like tale, etc.
STEP V
Students read and discuss the written texts in a group.
STEP VI
‘On minute break’: students, led by a leader, formulate a key idea.
When all students have read their texts, a discussion ensues in which a solution is generated, for example, society may be taught to accept the art of ugliness according to criteria of social and psychological rather than merely aesthetic influence. ‘On minute break’ is a term used by authors of the method, because it usually takes only one minute to formulate a general conclusion after a discussion.
STEP VII
Students return to the main space and the leader presents the ideas they have formulated (problem solving method). All ideas are discussed.
- Cognitive activities allow students to use their personal creative potential:
- Writing – persuading reflection and inner monologue,
- Reading – new perspectives comparing experiences,
- Dialogue – accumulation of creative energy,
- One minute break – formulation/writing down ideas.
– The risk of this exercise is that students are sometimes very confused when they need to create a text here and now. Additionally, they may not understand exactly how the exercise should be done to get the maximum effect.
+ To minimize this risk the teacher should explain the goals and objectives of this exercise in detail before introducing it to students.
Exercise II: INTERVIEW
Zoom, Teams or any digital learning environment
During the semester
Main body
Online, blended, face-to-face
Synchronous with asynchronous elements
The aim of this type of lesson is to create an atmosphere of cooperation between students and the teacher, to involve students as partners in the study process.
Receiving an interview in a lesson involves the same like in life outside school: questions and answers.
The forms of receiving interviews can be different. Three of them are most often used:
- interviewing the teacher on the topic of the lesson (1);
- interviewing a teacher as a character (2);
- students interviewing each other during the role play (3).
This is one of the forms of a lesson-conference.
STEP I
At the beginning of the interview lesson, the teacher briefly outlines the topic, deliberately not revealing it in full, but giving some information. He/she may be very succinct about the topic, or he/she may miss a few important pieces of information.
For example, talking about any about any historical period the teacher may not mention the most important events, persons, etc. It depends on the lesson goals he/she has set.
STEP II
Students are divided into small groups. Each group goes to a separate room on the Zoom or Teams platform. Teacher can regulate the number and types of questions (for example, 5 clarifying and 2 open) which are prepared by students.
STEP III
Students return to the main teaching area with questions on the topic. Groups read questions to the teacher without repeating the same ones. If the students have forgotten to ask something, the teacher himself/herself will have to indicate the required question.
STEP IV
The teacher answers the questions. The rest of the questions are left to the students – homework.
STEP V
During the next lesson, students provide answers to questions which were not are answered during the previous class.
- This exercise allows students to feel more confident in communicatio.
- Professional knowledge is tested and expanded.
- Teamwork skills improve.
- Experiences are personalized.
- The teacher can assess how students assimilate knowledge, what their ability level is.
– There is a risk that students may not understand the task and get lost. Then the method fails.
– Students may refrain from asking questions that are necessary for full disclosure of the topic being studied.
+ It is important to provide clear instructions.
+The teacher asks the missing questions himself/herself and answers them.
Exercise III: WE CAN WRITE A BOOK
Book Creator, Creative Book Builder, My Story, or other story creating digital tool and Zoom, Teams or any digital learning environment
Main body
Online
Synchronous
To develop students’ creativity and to document students’ learning process using non-traditional methods.
Students create an e-Book for a learning area and document target progress over time, creating a book page each time they work on their target.
STEP I
The teacher introduces students to the task which is creating an e-Book during the semester. Students divide themselves into groups that will create their own e-Books.
STEP II
The teacher introduces students to the possible book-making platforms and explains how to use them. The required platform is selected (if there is such a possibility).
STEP III
Students gather in groups. Groups meet in separate virtual rooms, discuss, and decide what the content of the e-Book is going to be (the aim is to document the learning process), how much time they need to devote to the e-Book during each lecture, who will be the group leader, etc.
STEP IV
Students return to the main teaching area. A formal plan for the preparation of the e-Books is drawn up. The plan also includes timeline which shows how the books are prepared during the semester. The plan is discussed with all students.
STEP V
During several specially designed seminars (for instance, in the 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th or 12th week of semester), students write an e-book while working in groups in separate virtual rooms. The task of the teacher is to visit each room, observe the process, answer the students’ questions.
STEP VI
The E-Books are finally here! A virtual book fair is organized. Students present their e-Books.
- Students will get a rich experience in innovative learning methods.
- Students will learn to work in a group, create and share best practices.
– The risk is related to the policy of the higher education institution, i.e., what digital tools the higher education institution uses, how much it is willing to pay for them, etc.
+ This risk can be solved at the higher school management level.
Exercise IV: ZIGZAG
Google Classroom, Eduka, Teams, Zoom, Slack, Canvas or any other platform adapted for working in virtual groups
During the semester
Online
Synchronous
The purpose of this method is to study and systematize a large volume of material effectively.
The teacher is faced with situations when students must master a large amount of educational material, and there is not enough time for this in the program. What if he/she does not have time to fully cover and analyze the program material in the classroom in full detail? In this case, the Zigzag exercise will come in handy.
STEP I
The teacher must divide the text which is being studied into semantic fragments for mutual learning. The number of passages should match the number of group members. For example, if the text is divided into 5 semantic passages, then there are 5 students in a group.
STEP II
The class is divided into groups. Each group begins working in a separate virtual room. Each member of the group is given a meaningful part of the text which he/she analyzes independently and prepares to present it. He/she may consult the text with other group members. At the end of the work, students move to other groups.
STEP III
New groups are formed so that each group has “experts” on the same topic. (This means that there are those students in the new group who have studied the same piece of text in the previous group). By sharing the results of their work, a scheme of a common narrative topic is prepared.
STEP IV
Students join their previous groups. Upon returning to his/her working group, “the expert” introduces his/her topic to other members of the group using a common presentation scheme. All members of the working group exchange information. Thus, in each working group, thanks to the work of “experts”, a common understanding of the research topic is formed.
STEP V The next step is to provide information on individual topics, which is done by one of “the experts”; other students make additions or answer questions. It happens when everyone returns to the common virtual space.
- Collective types of work make the seminar more interesting, lively, develop students’ conscious approach to learning, inspire mental activity, allow students to repeat the material many times.
- It helps the teacher to explain and constantly monitor the knowledge, skills, and abilities of students in the whole class.
– This effective exercise takes a lot of time to complete qualitatively, so the main risk is lack of time. An exercise that is not completed correctly is less effective. The teacher does not achieve his/her educational goals.
+ This risk can be avoided by planning the timing of it very precisely. The teacher’s task is to make sure the students stick to the planned time schedule.
Exercise V: BAG OF KNOWLEDGE
Google Classroom, Eduka, Teams, Zoom, Slack, Canvas or any other platform adapted for working in virtual groups
Introduction
During the semester
Online
Synchronous
To update the students’ knowledge and remind them of relevant contexts that will be needed to study the topic of the lecture or seminar
It is a method of organizing group work of students in the initial stage of the lesson when their experience and knowledge are updated.
STEP I
A direct question is asked about what students know about a particular problem which is connected to the content of the previous lesson (lessons).
STEP II
The class is divided into groups. Each group begins working in a separate virtual room.
STEP III
Each student types in a chat of virtual room everything he/she knows about a particular problem. Strictly individual work, duration 1-2 minutes.
STEP IV The information is then exchanged within the groups. Students share familiar knowledge. The general opinion (“bag of knowledge”) of the group is formed. The discussion time is no more than 3 minutes.
STEP V
Students return to the shared virtual space and present their “bag of knowledge” about the problem. Knowledge is compared. If there are discrepancies and mistakes, they are corrected.
- Development of problem-solving, communication skills, independence andself-confidence.
- Expansion of the skills of goal setting, control, assessment, self-control, mutual control, self-esteem.
- Elaboration of interest in the subject.
- Training reflection, that is the ability to look at yourself, at your activity from the outside, to understand what you are doing, why you are doing and saying this or that, and to evaluate your actions.
– When organizing group discussions, there is a risk that that not all students will be able express their views.
+ During the discussion, the teacher must monitor the implementation and observance of the basic rules of the discussion: criticize not a person, but his/her ideas; the main goal is not to defend your position, but to come to the best solution; every student must be heard; each student must participate in the discussion.
